OAuth 1.0a “one legged” authentication with Ruby on Rails

OAuth 1.0a is an old method of authentication but is still in use by a lot of legacy third parties as a layer of authentication for their APIs.

OAuth 1.0a provides five modes –

1. One Legged
2. Two Legged
3. Three Legged
4. Echo
5. xAuth

To learn more about different modes and OAuth refer to their official bible – http://oauthbible.com/

This article talks about how to perform one-legged authentication with Ruby on Rails.

The basic mechanism is as shown in the image below –

Ref – http://oauthbible.com/

There are only two things that you require for performing an OAuth 1.0a authentication –

1. Consumer Key
2. Consumer Secret

The gem that works well for a one-legged approach is https://github.com/oauth-xx/oauth-rubyThere are other gems that can be used but I found this to be pretty straightforward.

Steps to follow –

1. Install the OAuth gem

sudo gem install oauth 

or add it to your gem file and perform bundle install

gem 'oauth'

2. Create a consumer to consume various API endpoints

consumer=OAuth::Consumer.new('consumer_key', 'consumer_secret', :site => 'https://example.com')

3. How to make a GET call?

response = consumer.request(:get, ‘/resource/:id’, nil, {}, {})
puts response

4. How to make a POST call?

params = { "key1": "value1", "key2": "value2" }
response = @consumer.request(:post, '/resource', nil, {}, params)

If you need to specify Content-Type

response = @consumer.request(:post, '/resource', nil, {}, params,
{ 'Content-Type' => 'application/json' })

puts response

5. How to make a PUT call?

params = { "key1": "value1", "key2": "value2" }
response = @consumer.request(:put, '/resource', nil, {}, params.to_json)

If you need to specify Content-Type

response = @consumer.request(:put, '/resource', nil, {}, params.to_json, 
{ 'Content-Type' => 'application/json' })

puts response

Please note that for the PUT method, the parameters have to be strictly converted to JSON.

In case you want to test the OAuth 1.0a one-legged authentication over Postman, refer to the screenshot below

I hope the above steps helped you to clear all your doubts. Still, If you have any queries or want to understand it in a better way. Please leave your comments and feedback in the comment section below. I will be glad to assist you.

Testing OAuth 1.0a One-Legged Authentication

In case you want to test the OAuth 1.0a one-legged authentication over Postman, refer to the screenshot below.

By implementing OAuth 1.0a authentication properly, you can ensure secure API interactions for legacy systems. Integrating OAuth into a Web Development Service makes it easier for businesses to provide secure access to their applications while maintaining data integrity.

I hope the above steps helped you clear all your doubts. Still, if you have any queries or want to understand it in a better way, please leave your comments and feedback in the comment section below. I will be glad to assist you.